Obafemi Martins surprised he went 90 minutes

Here's some reaction from and about Obafemi Martins on his return to the Sounders after missing four matches with an ankle sprain:

MARTINSOn his return: It’s good to be back. I was a little difficult for me because I didn’t train for like three weeks, but it’s all good. I just want to play and help the team as usual.

(On being prepared for the game…) “It was very difficult for me because I didn’t train for three weeks. But it’s all good. I just want to play on the team as usual and I’m glad that we won today.” (On being frustrated on having a couple of chances to score early…) “I wasn’t expecting anything anyway because I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready at all. But it’s all good. I have to continue to work for the next game.” (On being prepared to play 90 minutes…) “I wasn’t expecting to play 90 minutes at all because I wasn’t playing that good. But I’m all good now. I have to start doing well and do everything that they say.” Coach SIGI SCHMID(On Martins’ injury progress leading up to the game…) “He made it through yesterday OK. He felt all right this morning, so we felt it was going to be pretty good. I checked with him and he felt fitness-wise, as well, he felt okay. I think he tired a little probably 70th or 75th minute in, but he’s still dangerous and the other team is still worried about him, so that’s why we left him on. He came through two days of practice well.”

(On Martins' early chances...) “It helps our team anytime anybody is able to get opportunities—whether it’s him or Lamar [Neagle] or whomever. I thought the team felt good about how they played. They were disappointed to be down 1-0 at the time, and then we finally got the equalizer and then we had the penalty, so we thought we were going to go up for sure at that point, but everybody sometimes discounts penalties because sometimes you make them and sometimes you miss them. It was just one of those things. What I like is our character. We kept plugging away, we kept battling, and we fought to the end of the game.” (On the possession play of his team…) “We didn’t do a good job of holding on to the ball and connecting passes early in the second half. It also seemed like when we played balls into our front runners they were being handled physically and that was allowed to go on. I think that created some turnovers, where in the first half we were getting some of those calls. That allows [Martins] to put possession into their end of the field. Once we settled a little bit in maybe the last 15-20 minutes of the game, I think we did a better job of holding on to the ball and that created more chances for us.”

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